Gene Siskel Film Center — Friday and Tuesday, 6pm
Since the plot of this film is so widely known, let's talk about
the artists and the issues. Ned Beatty was never better, Jon Voight
showed us that MIDNIGHT COWBOY was not a fluke, and Burt Reynolds played
the hell out of the most perfect role he was ever given. But they all
had to kick back and watch when Ronny Cox and Billy Redden gave us the
most iconic bluegrass jam ever to grace the silver screen. These performances
were buttressed by the impeccable authenticity that cinematographer
Vilmos Zsigmond delivered, making use of natural lighting almost throughout.
Danger and moral ambiguity are still tangibly felt upon repeat viewings,
owing mainly to the depth of James Dickey's script (and not hurt by
his appearance as the Sheriff of Aintry, GA). It could be labeled a
celebration of machismo, earned through a journey of conquest and killing—an
appeasement of the male ego through self-reflexive masochism. Of course
the film does this as a questioning of the position of men in white,
suburban America in the early '70s. As Stepanie Farber said in her 1972
New York Times review: "In the film the journey has no purpose;
nothing is achieved, nothing gained. The last images express a sense
of total desolation. There is no sentimentality in the film; it is a
serious and meaningful challenge to the belief in rites of manhood."
SAIC professor Jim Trainor lectures at the Tuesday screening. (1972,
110 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
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